More Harper military follies

In this interesting article in the National Post we see that Pierre Trudeau was the big spender on the military of all prime ministers going back to 1970. The article is interesting enough for this alone, but the really interesting part is further down the article where it's stated that:

"Some Conservatives have also complained the funding the government has directed for new defence equipment has not translated into additional support for the party at the polls."

Ummm.... isn't the point of increased military spending to support our troops in doing the job we send them to do and not to score political points with the electorate?

Ok, yet more proof that the extent of the Harper Conservatives support for our troops is contingent on how much traction in the polls they can get out of it and not any actual support for the troops. If, as it seems to be, the Tories aren't getting any mileage out of "supporting the troops", that support will be dropped in favour of something that gets Harper closer to his much dreamed of majority government. This means that if Harper believes that massive cuts to corporate taxes will get him votes in truckloads, and to fund those tax cuts, a reduction in military spending is in order, faster than you can say "cut and run", the Canadian Forces are fighting a war on less than a shoestring budget.

This is, of course, the exact opposite of what should be happening. If we're going to ask our military to go fight somewhere, then we should be sparing no expense to make sure that our young men and women have the best equipment and training money can buy, period. Not the bare minimum of equipment that they might need, and that only if it gets helps out one or another political party. To do anything else is to play politics with the very lives of our military personnel, politics that one party or one man can grab the power they lust for. To do anything less verges on the criminal.

As time goes on, this and everything else we see from the Tories seems to indicate that their "principles" are nothing more than a hollow shell hiding an naked desire for power. The Tories are fast becoming the Liberals in their do anything to get and hold power attitude and not the party of principle that they make themselves to be. What they would do with that power of course is unclear, as what the Harper Conservatives say and what they do don't seem to mesh. It is possible that some kind of US Republican style neo-con agenda would suddenly appear. It's equally possible that the same stumbling from crisis to crisis the Harper Tories are becoming famous for would simply continue. Either option isn't desirable in a government.

H/T to Sean in Saskatchewan.